Turn off Jersey Shore and watch this instead

As regular readers of my blog know, I'm addicted to documentaries. (I'm addicted to learning in general, actually. Man, what a buzz that gives me.) The website Top Documentary Films is one of my very favorite corners of the internet. Anyway, a while back, I recommended a handful of documentaries that I've enjoyed. And now, here are some more.

The History of Chocolate
Not terribly thrilling, but a short and enjoyable special about chocolate, with emphasis of its journey from bitter to sweet and American chocolatiers.

Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer
Oh, how I love melodramatic titles and cheesy reenactments. This is a pretty cool special that actually focuses more on an archeological find of what might be Cleopatra's SISTER, and how this discovery is filling in some holes in a history that's been almost completely swallowed in myth. Lots of family/political intrigue, and come on, how cool is forensic archeology?

Stealing Lincoln's Body
Did you know that 11 years after Lincoln's assassination, a band of Chicago counterfeiters hatched a plot to steal the President’s body from its tomb outside Springfield, Illinois, and hold it for a ransom of $200,000? And that they kind of almost succeeded? They should put THIS stuff in the history books, man.

Ancient Apocalypse: The Minoans
These were hecka cool people, the Minoans. For a while, archeologists believed that the Minoan civilization was the catalyst for the myth of Atlantis. And while it was too bad that their entire civilization got wiped out by a volcano, the ash conveniently preserved a lot.

The Story of India
India is awesome. This documentary proves it. Six awesome freaking hours of India. 


The Mystery of the Romanovs
Remember that awesome animated movie of "Anastasia"? It's totally awesome. But this is a case where the truth is even stranger than fiction. The myth of Anastasia didn't arise from a story about a kitchen boy helping her through a hole in the wall. It arose because after she and her sister were shot at point-blank range in the cellar of the building they were being imprisoned in, she and her sister sat up and started screaming. And Rasputin didn't have anything to do with why. But I'm not telling you why. Go watch it.

Oh I love documentaries. There's also this great series on TopDocumentaryFilms.com called Ancients Behaving Badly, which I want to watch just because the name is hilarious. I'll let you know what I think.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finish watching Cracking the Color Code, all about the scientific, anthropological and emotional explanations and history of how we perceive color. 

image via